Flow cytometry systems can be utilized to analyze at least one of a plurality of particles. The plurality of particles is typically a population of biological particles such as sperm cells, stem cells, blood cells, bacteria, or the like. The analysis of a population of particles can occur at analysis rates of between about 10,000 particles per second and about 200,000 particles per second depending on the of the population of particles and the manner of analysis. The analysis of individual particles in a population can provide information relating to the presence or absence or the amount of one or more particle characteristics. The relative presence or absence or the amount of one or more particle characteristics may be used to as the basis on which to differentiate individual particles of an analyzed population into two or more discrete subpopulations of particles. The discreet subpopulations of particles can then be separated from the main population of particles and isolated as discrete subpopulations of particles as further described herein.
The operator of the flow cytometer device relies on the use of a viewable data representation to make decisions about the operation of the flow cytometer device. Since the flow cytometer device can be analyzing many hundreds of millions of particles per hour and may be further sorting many millions of cells per hour, the viewable data representation may be designed to show the flow cytometer operator a continuously updated viewable data representation. The continuously updated viewable data representation may include analysis data of a fraction of the population of particles analyzed along with operating parameters for the flow cytometer device updated in discrete analysis intervals. For example, the viewable data representation may be updated every 100 milliseconds, in the form of histograms of the most recent 10 seconds of particle analysis data.
The flow cytometer operator relies on the viewable data representation to both manage and control procedures and parameters for particle analysis and sorting but to also to control the hardware configuration of the flow cytometer device with regard to three dimensional positioning of components such as the fluidic nozzle, beam shaping optics and optical focus for detection, and the like. The flow cytometer operator may also control the rate of droplet formation, the amplitude of the energy used in droplet formation and the voltage applied to droplet streams without use of the viewable data representation; although these types of adjustments can change the scale and precision of measurements being made in analysis of the population of particles and result in changes to the viewable data representation displayed to the flow cytometer operator. Accordingly, the viewable data representation provides a source of real time information utilized by the flow cytometer operator to adjust particle analysis and flow cytometer device parameters.
The viewable data representation generated during operation of the flow cytometer device can be generated in an image format selected by the flow cytometer operator which can be configured by selection of particular data masks and data sets which populate such data masks which are typically provided as histograms. Although the analysis data generated by a flow cytometer device may be collected and stored in a memory element of the flow cytometer device as raw data files, the operation of a flow cytometer device to assess over a duration of time the operating condition, adjust analysis and hardware parameters to optimize the operating condition, or trouble shoot the operating condition for software or hardware problems may require access to a substantial portion or all of the history and detail of the viewable data representation. However, use of a substantial portion of the history and detail the viewable data representation during operation of a flow cytometer device, or other similar analysis device, can present certain problems.
One substantial problem with using a substantial portion of the history and detail of viewable data representation may be competition for computer processing capacity of the flow cytometer device (or other devices which provide similar viewable data representations) resulting in a delay updating display of the viewable data representation which in certain instances can appear as interrupted or non-continuous display of the viewable data representation. In certain instances depending on the flow cytometer device, attempts to access and utilize stored viewable data representations or attempts to control the functionalities of the flow cytometer device remotely can interfere with the normal operation and particle analysis of the flow cytometer device.
Another substantial problem may be that the viewable data representation is stored in files that subtend some user defined amount of detail in screens per second and in seconds per file. These file management and data storage requirements can overload the computer processing unit (“CPU”), read only memory (“RAM”), and the local memory storage capacity of individual flow cytometer devices, especially when such flow cytometer devices are equipped with versions of CPU, RAM, operating systems (“OS”), and other programs that were not designed to operate at speeds required for use of large file sizes associated with viewable data representations in form of images, video, histograms, or similar technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images.
Another substantial problem may be that viewable data representations in the form of image files and video files, or the like, may be to large to be utilized in the lesser bandwidths of local area networks (“LAN”) or virtual private networks (“VPN”) to effectively transmit to computers outside of the LAN.
Another substantial problem may be that the effort, time, and cost of providing sufficient storage space in memory for all historical viewable data representation at a level of resolution sufficient to be useful upon retrieval is too great when compared to the value of the viewable data representation stored.
Another substantial problem may be that conventional methods to capture, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, or reconstruct images to provide conventional viewable data representations are not scalable. For example, while conventional methods of providing a viewable data representation may be practical in regard to one flow cytometer device, it may not be possible or practical in the context of providing a viewable data representation for a plurality of flow cytometer devices such as 50 or 100 flow cytometer devices (or even a greater number of devices) at a single location or in a LAN environment, or in a distributed network of flow cytometer devices, or a plurality of distributed LAN environments connected in a wide area network (“WAN”) environment.